1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and computer program product for synchronizing climate control devices in a network system.
2. Description of Related Art
Locales or facilities having wide fluctuations in daily temperatures often require air conditioning and heating at different times of the day. A climate control conflict may arise in a facility requiring both daily air conditioning and heating when two or more climate control zones are commonly located in the facility. For example, automated climate control systems having multiple zone environments include thermostats deployed at separate locations in a facility. The thermostats will select either an air conditioning mode or a heating mode based on the sensed temperature and the parameters programmed in the climate control system.
In multiple zoned environments, a situation may arise in which an automated and/or a manual climate control system has one or more climate control devices activated in an air conditioning mode and one or more climate control devices activated in a heating mode. Such a situation results in inefficient energy usage. The automatic thermostats may be manually synchronized so that all climate control devices are activated in a common mode. However, such a solution defeats the purpose of deploying an automated climate control system. The manual thermostats have no way of notifying the user of an inconsistent setting with other thermostats. No automated solutions are known for enabling synchronization of multiple climate control devices in an automated climate control system featuring multiple peer thermostats.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system for synchronization of climate control devices in a climate control system having no master controller or master thermostat. It would be further advantageous to provide a climate control system featuring peer thermostat control units that control respective climate control devices in which the operation of the climate control devices are synchronized.